The influence of substrate bias voltage on the electrochemical properties of ZrN thin films deposited by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering: Biomedical application

In order to study the influence of the substrate bias on the properties of ZrN thin films deposited by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering for biomedical application. Films of ZrN were grown onto 316L stainless steel substrate using radio-frequency (rf) magnetron sputtering from a pure zirconium target in Ar - N₂ gas mixture. The substrate bias voltage was varied from 0 to −100 V, which produces a variation in the structural and electrochemical properties of the obtained films. The deposited films were characterized by X-Rays Diffraction, Atomic Force Microscopy, scanning force microscopy and potentiodynamic polarization.